Saturday, March 10, 2012

So before we get down to the actual riding I had a stalker for like a whole day!

Yep :D

Long story short er… Well actually long story long… A discussion was going on about yet another drug in Hunter land that USEF has jumped on but really unable to test for immediately, and I decided that a petition should be put together for the judges to review their pinning SOME of the slowest fattest most un-athletic animals you have ever seen a junior rider spur spur spur around the arena at half mast.

Yes I know there are some great horses… Yada yada yada, and I absolutely love lots of the top Hunters, but I am more attracted to the flashy sassy lookin ones… So that is that.

My last hunter ended up going onto to be a childrens hunter and when I went to visit her at the BNT she was HUGE fat and incredibly unsound due to the current “trends”.

People think this is a dressage vs. hunter thing but I have only done dressage a few short (maybe 5) years, and don’t get me started on THOSE issues.

I can go on and on about Arab, Hunters, AQHA, APHA, APHC, Dressage, and just about any other sport being that I have been a member and owner/shower of all of it…. Well most all of it…. No eventing, or racing so… There is that.

I enjoy dressage currently… But my loyalty is with horses in general. Sue me.

I won’t go into my personal experience with horses being drugged, and I really, really don’t feel like sharing why it bothers me so much… (not incriminating no, but enough to make me nauseous for being younger and not really saying as much as my now older and wiser (or more unable to mind my own darn businessesier) self would have done)

Since I have done contentions for property claims and injuries that would translate over easily to petitions, right? Er… sure.

Are people really drugging that much you ask? Well personal experiences aside the USEF felt it was an issue enough to address it by name (Carolina Gold).

I am absolutely not a lawyer, and I think my IQ is fairly average maybe lower, but if it got people talking about better ways to get away from the drugging… So be it. If one owner rethought their trainer’s push to drug… Great! It could take off and end up with 1000 signatures or flop at about 50 maybe even less (which it is at about 30 right now I think…)

If it went absolutely nowhere and my non-english speaking 4th cousin was the only one to sign accidentally and send me a message that said, “Ohh is no bueno this thing about the horses on drugs? What drugs are they on? You know Alfredo started the pot?” It would be no big deal. I would have tried… Hence petitions just being that “a formal written request” … Some are just floating messages and rants that people typed when they were tired, weary, and maybe even a little drunk (shifty eyes) ;D

But 30 (so far) people agreeing with anything in the horse world is a miracle in my opinion.

So back to the stalker…. Ellen something or other… I’ll call her Ellen Notsogenerous. She quickly starts attacking my lead of the “charge”. Charge is a big word. Charge makes me think of Braveheart…

I was thinking more like first time amateur petition attempt for the purpose of feeling like maybe just maybe I did my part, but okay. She began to ask me if I was listening to the forums and making assumptions… If you know me at all you are laughing right. About… Now. I often feel like the forums have nothing but three caged loons with an infinite amount of email addresses… Why three? Because three disciplines duh…

Either that or one with multiple personalities, but the idea that anything said on there is taken into my truth and fact chamber is a bit… Um silly milly billy nilly if you willy.

Anyway, after me basically saying, nice to know, move on … Um ya, it’s a petition and you obviously don’t have to sign it… Well (checks watch) we all have more things to fill out the day I hope… She then came to my blog (thanks for the traffic!) and then proceeded to tell me some would say my riding was worse then drugs…

EEEEERRRTTTT! That was my attempt at a car brakes sound.

So, let me get this right Mrs. Notsogenerous… Can I call you Elly? Okay, Elly, so in your estimation my ammy riding in a regular snaffle on my TB in a saddle I spent eons looking for to make sure it fit, without spurs or whip (just not using any right now currently, but still) is more abusive then an inhibitor injected into the veins of a horse 13 minutes before being spurred by his probably not very good ammy rider (she needed drugs right?) towards a 3-4 ft fence without its full senses?

My answer?

Delete!

This is not coth, and it is sure as helky helk helk not a public forum. It is MY little crazy world where I will take almost anything but more insanity then even I myself can dish out… And that is quite the load madear!

Sell your crazy elsewhere… If you have read my blog even a little you will see we are all stocked up here!

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

I am sooo behind… I have two videos… And a partridge in a pear tree… But this below was started a while ago so…

BC

Before camera…

fade backwards in time...

The rain is driving me to insanity! The boards are boring because they are more normal than usual and the crazier folk who take up about 40% of my entertainment quota are probably in the nice sunny weather riding their dang horses…

I committed cotherside recently it’s a form of forum suicide… I do this regularly so no need for counseling sites to be posted.

Anywho, it started with this lovely video

Edward Gal the former rider of Totilas… Riding Romanov and up and comer :)

Of course it was posted as a “look at this lovely ride” post but then quickly slinked in the tittering meanderers…

Tisk tisk tisk, you think THAT is lovely? He is being ruined, and the tail tells a story, and the hooves are not nearly as shiney whenever Edward rides him, sniff, sniff, oh please someone tell me when did this flingy footed circus movement become popular? Anyone? The old days were soooo (fill in the blank), the klapsical book on my desk says, (mutter mutter mutter)…

I still dunno why I have to argue with anyone when I call Edward the top rider in the world… His highest scores ever says so and any other sport has no trouble calling a spade a spade even if they don’t like the team, player, sponsors, the sport itself…

But, whatev.

So after the picking and pecking had gone on long enough to make me start to get a little batty I posted this:

Its entirely incredible!

The same folks who will tell you how simple it is to ride GP and how most of the top riders are doing it wrong, will also come on here and mystify the new dressage rider into believing that there is a majical way to do even the basics and how incredibly difficult the lower levels are... Its not easy... But it is just horse riding for goodness.

Simple horse riding turns into a mythological thing where you need a Pegasus to perform a leg yield.

It takes years in cothland to develop a horse for simple contact... YEARS and YEARS if they are below the age of ohhh I dunno 8...

No matter that the Europeans ride a horse in light contact from the first ride... Here you MUST jog around with loose reins and then build up towards the moment where you can touch your horses face like you are losing yours and your horses contact virginity... Having trouble? You must not be majical enough.

If your horse is refusing to go forward? He must be made for jumpers... Don't bring your dressage hating prejudice horse here! Dressage and forward are synonymous don't you know! And no other discipline needs proper training like we do.

No matter that he wasn't even doing training level.. He MUST need a job change because he must have sniffed out it was that ole nutty dressage riding he'd heard about and he wants NONE of it and 'knows" that when you take the slightest bit of rein up... That that leads to collection.. He says no thank you because he needs to jump or be a trail horse. Yes send your well bred purpose horse to do trails because it wouldnt be that he needs a new trainer/rider/owner/alfalfa flake...

Edward Gal? He must need lessons from me about connection... In about 20 years he can then do a piaffe... From the ground with a baroque pony and I'll finally be able to afford his clinic when he comes to town.

Rant over...

So I think it boils down to this… I call it the “Anky Spanky” The average rider disillusioned and attempting to make a social dressage knowledge climb because of the dirt found on various top riders (being that we are in a mobile video age) that otherwise would have remained buried deep. Good and bad in some cases.

I am a horse fan plain and simple. If you are hurting a horse and I am there to see it I will most likely roll my neck around and holler in that order, however I am not entirely sure that the aforementioned rider is exactly putting the choke hold on her horses as often as is assumed… I reserve my judgment.

Anywho, the Anky Spanky is an era where people feel that finding ‘fault’ with top riders somehow licenses THEM to not only comment on the abuse, or unfortunate training methods, BUT ALSO every other bit of dressage riding under the sun… BAR NONE!

Who cares if we are ammy riders still doing the 20-ish oblong meter cirle sorta square… We now suddenly can advise on Grand Prix work!